Children’s Awareness of Social Exclusion Does not Align With Their Social Preferences

• In Event: Balancing Belonging, Fairness, and Cost in Children's Preferences and Predictions About Affiliative Behaviours

Abstract

Introduction: Feeling excluded from a group is a common human experience that begins in childhood. Yet little is known about the basic skill of when children can detect exclusion and start to modulate their behavior in response to exclusion. Even infants prefer prosocial over antisocial agents (Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, 2007), suggesting young children may avoid individuals who exclude others and prefer individuals who include others – even before they can identify social exclusion. Thus, the current study investigated whether the ability to identify social exclusion develops in tandem with social preference behavior in 3- to 6-year-old children.
Study Population: Children were recruited from a U.S. Midwestern city. The racial composition of the sample was mostly White (~75% White). Experiment 1: 32 3-year-olds (15 females), 32 4-year-olds (17 females), and 32 5- to 6-year-olds (14 females). Experiment 2: 64 3- to 4-year-olds (33 females) and 64 5- to 6-year-olds (33 females).
Hypotheses: We predicted that young children may show more discernment in preference than in identification. Specifically, 5- to 6-year-olds should differentiate exclusive agents from inclusive agents in preference and identification, but 3- to 4-year-olds may show better differentiation in preference than identification.
Methods: Experiment 1: Children played with two pairs of puppets: One pair did not toss the ball to the child after the first toss (exclusive) and the other pair tossed the ball equally to the child and each other (inclusive). An experimenter blind to the puppets’ roles asked children which pair they preferred (preference) and whether any of the puppets did not want to play with them (identification). Experiment 2: Children played four games of Cyberball (Williams, Cheung, & Choi, 2000), a virtual ball game in which they could toss the ball to two other players. The players were programed such that children experienced two inclusion and two exclusion games. Children were asked to identify whether the players shared the ball or not (identification) and whether they want to play with these players or new players (preference). The order of games and tasks were counterbalanced in both experiments.
Results: Experiment 1: One-tailed binomial tests indicated 3- to 4-year-olds did not show a clear preference (35/64 chose inclusive puppets, p = .266) or identification (28/64 correctly identified exclusive puppets, p = .870). Five- to six-year-olds significantly preferred the inclusive puppets (23/32 chose inclusive puppets, p = .010) and correctly identified the exclusive puppets (22/32 correctly identified exclusive puppets, p = .025). Experiment 2: Fisher’s exact tests indicated 3- to 4-year-olds preferred new players regardless of game type (p =.048). Five- to six-year-olds were more likely to prefer current players after inclusive than exclusive games (p < .001). Both age groups were more likely to identify players did not share after exclusion than inclusion games (ps < .001).
Contrary to expectations, young children’s social preferences for exclusive over inclusive agents did not emerge earlier in development than their ability to identify exclusive behavior. Children’s ability to modulate their behavior in response to social exclusion may be a later emerging skill.

Authors

• Hyesung Grace Hwang, University of California - Santa Cruz
  Presenting Author

• Lori Markson, Washington University in St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author